AURORA — When voters in the sprawling 6th Congressional District decide who will represent them come Election Day, a key factor will be how they view the candidates’ positions on immigration reform. And nowhere in Colorado does the issue resonate more than in the district that includes Aurora and Littleton and that is home to burgeoning ethnic enclaves and an electorate evenly divided among political parties — making it one of the most competitive races in the nation.

The candidates’ past approaches to immigration have, in recent months, been thrust into the spotlight just as much as their current positions.

The Democratic challenger — district newcomer Andrew Romanoff — joins his party’s call for comprehensive reforms that include bolstering border security and pathways toward citizenship, but his leadership as state House speaker in 2006 brought in new laws that at the time were hailed as some of the toughest state-level reforms in the country.

The Republican incumbent — Mike Coffman, an immigration hardliner for much of his political career who used to oppose any pathway toward citizenship for children brought to the country illegally — now has sought to shift his stances to include piecemeal reforms.

Given the heightened attention to border security and humanitarian questions that have arisen over the influx of families crossing the border illegally from Central America, the issue of immigration reform is likely to have renewed resonance.

“It’s a defining issue in this race for a number of reasons,” said Peter Hanson, a professor of political science at the University of Denver. “One of those reasons is the district is made up of a wide array of immigrants who can cast ballots and who might be directly or indirectly impacted by an overhaul to immigration laws. The issue can drive people to the polls or keep them from voting.”

A critical decision

During the summer of 2006, in his first term as state House speaker, Romanoff faced a critical decision: Have a broadly worded initiative appear on the November ballot that would strip state benefits and even some medical services from those in the country illegally — including children — or strike a legislative compromise.

He choose the latter option and staved off a late effort to revive the ballot initiative by spearheading a bill that pleased some hardliners and upset some in the Latino community.

The compromise legislation followed tough laws passed during the regular session that included a proposal requiring local law enforcement to report anyone arrested for a criminal offense who is suspected of being in the country illegally to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“This is tough, effective, practical, enforceable, reasonable and, I think, a model for the country. My hope is that Washington takes a hint,” Romanoff said then of his special-session bill that required all applicants of state services to prove their legal status. His measure, unlike the possible ballot proposal, exempted children, the homeless and people in need of medical care.

Among the proponents of the ballot initiative that didn’t make it to voters was Coffman, the state treasurer at the time.

Coffman later headed to Congress to represent the then staunchly conservative 6th Congressional District, touting positions as a hardliner on immigration reform and following in the footsteps of his predecessor and a man he called his “hero” — Republican Tom Tancredo.

After the Democratic-controlled House in 2010 passed a version of the DREAM Act, a bipartisan bill that sought to provide kids brought to the country illegally a conditional path to citizenship that requires completion of a college degree or military service, Coffman called it “a nightmare for the American people.” And as early as 2011, before Coffman’s district was redrawn, he called for ballots to be printed only in English — a move that some immigrant-rights advocates said was an attempt to disenfranchise eligible voters. Currently, the district is about 20 percent Latino.

Key tenets in bill

The starkest divide between Coffman and Romanoff can be seen in a comprehensive immigration bill passed by the Senate last summer.

Drafted by a group of bipartisan senators that included Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, the bill’s key tenets include:

• Nearly doubling the number of patrol agents stationed along the U.S-Mexico border.

• Allowing immigrants living in the country illegally to obtain “registered provisional immigrant status”
if they entered the country prior to 2011, do not have a felony conviction or three misdemeanor convictions and pay a fine.

• Raising visa programs for highly skilled workers from 65,000 a year to 110,000.

• Making all employers implement within four years E-verify, a program that confirms workers’ legal status.

Coffman opposes the legislation, which stalled in the Republican-controlled House.

“I think border security and enforcement is important. I think immigration-reform policies that grow our economy and don’t place a burden on taxpayers are important. … And I think immigration-reform policies that keep families together are needed,” Coffman said recently in response to a question about what he believes are key tenets to immigration reform. He does not support a special path to citizenship for adults who knowingly came to the country illegally.

President Barack Obama last week called on Congress — in particular, House Republicans — to approve an estimated $3.7 billion to address thousands of children entering the U.S. illegally at the Mexican border. The funding, part of a larger supplemental budget request, is intended to speed the current turnaround and deportation processes.

Coffman demurred when asked whether he supports such funding.

“I won’t support the president’s request for additional funding unless there is a clear plan on how to stop this humanitarian crisis from getting worse,” he said in a statement.

Romanoff argues that the incumbent and his GOP allies have continuously failed to act on immigration.

“I’ve heard a lot of noise from Congressman Coffman’s camp and even the speaker of the House, saying, ‘We’re all for immigration reform. It’s a top priority.’ But when push comes to shove, there’s no pushing and there’s no shoving,” Romanoff, who supports the bipartisan Senate immigration bill, said in a recent interview. “There’s no action at all.”

“Governing by executive order”

Romanoff and his aides argue that Coffman’s positions have not changed — only his rhetoric.

For example, they point to votes by Coffman and House Republicans within the last year to defund the implementation of Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, an executive order that aims to protect children known as “DREAMERs” from deportation.

Coffman said his votes are a result of his belief that “we should not be governing by executive order.”

Since his narrow re-election victory in 2012, Coffman has shifted strongly on the idea of the DREAM Act. Now, the congressman says there should be “some process” where young people brought to the country illegally “have an opportunity to either go into the military and have a path to legal status from that or to higher education.”

Coffman spearheaded the Military Enlistment Opportunity Act, a proposal co-sponsored by Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois, which sought to provide a pathway toward citizenship for young people who join the military. Gutierrez, a vocal liberal leader on immigration, recently said Coffman “has proven he is a leader in Congress on the issue of immigration.”

In May, Coffman lacked enough Republican support to have the measure tacked onto the National Defense Authorization Act as an amendment.

Romanoff supports the enlistment act but calls more forcefully for comprehensive immigration reform, vowing to “knock on the speaker’s door every day” and saying he would sign a discharge petition in the House to bring an immigration bill to the floor for a vote.

“(Coffman) realized quickly his positions from his old district are simply just not politically acceptable in his new district. He had to shift his tone and his ideas,” said longtime political analyst Floyd Ciruli. “And a lot of times with voters, they can be swayed if there’s movement in a candidate to work in the best interests of constituents. Will it help him? It certainly seems like it will be a good year for Republicans, and Coffman has Democrats in Washington offering him praise for his legislation.”

The upper hand on Latinos?

Romanoff touts that he has always supported a path toward citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and during a recent interview, he described meeting with DREAMERs.

“The issue is personal to me because I wouldn’t be here if my family had not been able to come here (United States). These young people and immigrants to the country deserve a chance at citizenship,” Romanoff said.

Ciruli said Democrats have the upper hand when it comes to Latino voters, who often vote in lockstep with the party.

“Romanoff’s message is the same message that every Democrat running for office this year is expressing: ‘Comprehensive immigration reform is a must,’ ” he said. “It’s a message that resonates with Latinos. The question for Romanoff is: Can he turn out these voters in an election cycle where minorities often do not cast ballots?”

Meanwhile, Coffman aides say Romanoff is attempting to separate himself from a contentious 2006 legislature that drew ire from some immigrant-rights advocates.

That year a bipartisan coalition called Defend Colorado Now — led by former Democratic Gov. Dick Lamm — called for the November passage of Amendment 55, which limited non-emergency benefits to those who could provide documentation that showed they were in the country legally. The initiative, opponents argued, would hurt children in the country illegally. For example, kids could be denied vaccines.

But then-Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, called a special session to have the Democratic-controlled legislature put the measure back on the ballot so Coloradans could cast votes on it that November.

Rather than see the initiative possibly go to the ballot and become a constitutional amendment, Romanoff led the passage of House Bill 1023. The detailed measure allowed people under age 18 to receive state services without presenting identification.

The legislative compromise divided immigrant-rights advocates.

Some Latinos, such as former state lawmaker Polly Baca, praised the compromise as a more reasonable solution.

Butch Montoya, a former Denver manager of safety, said in a recent Denver Post op-ed column that “Romanoff knew his legislation would hurt not only undocumented immigrants, but also citizens of our state who could not prove legal status.”

Montoya, Julie Gonzales of the Colorado Latino Forum and current state Sen. Jessie Ulibarri, D-Westmister, penned an op-ed in 2010, as Romanoff ran for U.S. Senate in a Democratic primary, arguing the former House speaker “threw Latinos under the bus in the legislature.”

Romanoff said in a recent interview that he does have some regrets for the 2006 legislation that he and Democrats approved, but he said passing the laws were only in response to failure of comprehensive reforms from Congress.

“I said at the time, no amount of state action can replace federal reform which we needed then and still need now,” Romanoff said.

A native of Colorado, Kurtis Lee was a politics reporter for The Denver Post from February 2011 until July 2014. He graduated cum laude from Temple University in 2009 with a degree in journalism and political science. He previously worked as an online writer in Washington, D.C., for the PBS NewsHour.

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